Ethical Theories Flashcards
What’s contractarianism?
Refers to moral theories based on the idea of a social contract/agreement among individuals for a mutual advantage.
John Rawls- uses contractarianism/social contract to defend moral principles governing how members of society should treat each other. He wonders, “ how should society structure itself to ensure fair distribution of equality and social advantages?”
What are requirements for Rawls’ principles of justice?
- People must first agree to them and have a starting point to ensure they’re fair and unbiased choices b/c if they’re fair, the principles will be just and the society will be just.
What is Rawls’ starting point (original position) based off of? What about the veil of ignorance?
The original position is all about taking normal, self interested, rational individuals and having them come together to choose principles that’ll determine their basic rights and duties and their share of society’s benefits and burdens (advantages and disadvantages- justice).
The veil of ignorance is all about being unaware of who the other deciders on the board are (don’t know their social class, race, status, etc…) it’s put In place to ensure decisions are fair and impartial.
According to Rawls, what are the 3 fundamental principles the deciding participants would agree to ?
1st principle (dominant principle) : Everyone is entitled to the most freedom possible, they should have basic rights, duties, and liberties (no more than anyone else). Liberties can’t be unfairly distributed to improve economic wellbeing
2nd principle: everyone is entitled to an equal chance to acquire income, wealth, opportunities, and positions of authority
3rd principle: if inequalities must exist,arrange them to the benefit of the least advantaged
Who’s the inspiration for virtue ethics?
Aristotle. He said the highest goal of humanity is a human flourishing (eudaimonia-happiness) and developing virtues.
What are some moral and nonmoral virtues?
Moral virtues: benevolence, honesty, loyalty, compassion, and fairness
Nonmoral virtues: prudence, reasonableness, patience
What does care ethics focus on?
Care ethics focuses on the unique demands of situations (individuality) And to the virtues/feelings that are central to close personal relationships (empathy, compassion, love, sympathy, and fidelity).
Ex: Kant- take care of your kids strictly out of obligation.
Care ethics: take care of your kids b/c you love and care about them.
What’s feminist ethics concerned with refuting?
Feminist- group of movements that support defining, and defending gender equity, and equal rights for women.
Feminist ethics is concerned about refuting 4 principles:
- Women’s moral concerns aren’t as important as men’s moral concerns
- Women are morally inferior (less mature/irrational) to men
- Domestic/ Private life issues/inequalities are inconsequential
(Don’t matter) - Women virtues aren’t central to morality (community, nature, feeling,sharing, caring, connection, etc..)
In applied ethics, what’s the concept of casuistry concerned with?
Casuistry is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting/extending theoretical rules from a particular case and reapplying rules to new instances (case- based dentistry).
What’s a criticism of casuistry?
Casuists feel like cases are isolated and should be judged by the facts alone, but in order for the casuist to move from case to case, there must be a moral norm connecting the cases.
What’s the scientific criteria of adequacy ? What are the 2 different criteria?
It’s a theory that states the superior theory is the one that fares best when judged by generally accepted criteria.
Criteria:
1. Fruitfulness : does the theory make successful predictions about previous unknown or unexplained phenomena ? This will likely make this theory true
2.Conservatism: does this theory fit w/established scientific facts? This theory is most likely true
What’s the moral criteria of adequacy concerned with? What are the 3 criterions?
Moral criteria of adequacy- helps to explain right/wrong actions or good/bad people through certain criterion’s.
Criterions:
1. A new moral theory must have Consistency w/ our considered trustworthy moral judgments/ theories and facts.- no conflict b/w theory and relevant facts. Ex: we know slavery is bad, but if a theory argues that, the theory fails this criterion.
?? 2. Moral theories need Consistency w/ the facts of the moral life. They must acknowledge moral experiences: disagreeing about moral issues/giving reasons for accepting moral beliefs. Can’t act like it doesn’t exist.
3. Workability in real life situations. Resourcefulness in moral problem solving. If a theory can’t help solve moral problems, it’s not useful/credible.
According to the 1st and 3rd criteria of moral adequacy, why does utilitarianism fail?
3rd : It fails b/c it demands too much of us and blurs lines on obligatory/ supererogatory actions. It’s not a practical theory to real life moral problems.
1st: in certain cases, utilitarianism goes against justice and autonomy (self determination) for individual people to promote good for a larger audience. We know justice for all is a good thing, but utilitarianism might disagree if it’ll promote greater good in a population (killing a few to save a thousand)
According to the 1st & 3rd moral criteria of adequacy, why does Kant’s theory (duty/obligation) fail?
Criteria 1: if you had to lie to save a persons life, Kant would say tell the truth b/c you have a moral absolute duty to, but your truthful moral judgment says to lie to save a life.
Also Kant’s 1st categorical imperative is radical in terms of thinking about treating all equally. Ex: when killing all Christians is a mandate and you’re a Christian, You’d therefore have to kill your self based on imperative #1.
Criteria 3: due to the example above, Kant’s theories are useful for practical moral issues either, it’s too extreme and absolute.
According to Aristotle, what are virtues?
Virtues are traits that enable us to live well in communities. Aristotle also believes moral people can’s exist in isolation b/c it prevents them from developing necessary virtues for the good life.
